Chapter 13 Neil #5
For a second, I was afraid that she regretted coming to see me or even that she thought I’d finally gone too far with the previous night’s fuck. I had been wild and uncontrolled, but I didn’t want her condemning me for it—or herself.
Then Babygirl turned her face my way, and once again, gave me a look so unsettlingly worshipful that it almost made me embarrassed. I read an emotion in her eyes that I didn’t like at all, something I refused to name.
I made a scornful face, and she got off her stool to sashay over to me. I stared at her in confusion.
I never allowed a woman this kind of intimacy: sharing a bed with her all night, letting her invade my space, seeing her first thing in the morning, and even sharing breakfast with her like some happy couple.
It just didn’t belong in my daily life.
Lost in my own thoughts, I failed to notice that Selene had reached me until I saw her looking me up and down like a deadly tigress.
She was particularly focused on my waist, and I frowned as I tried to figure out what the hell had caught her attention there.
I got it when she delicately brushed her fingers along the raised, reddish scratches that had been left there by her fingernails.
“Are those from me?” she asked, staring at them fixedly.
Was she for real?
She was the only other person there; the answer seemed fairly obvious, so I didn’t say anything.
“Meaning, whoever touches you next is going to see them and know that you are mine,” she continued, staring piercingly into my eyes.
“Yours?” I repeated, like she was speaking another language.
“Yes…you told me you were last night. While we were…” She trailed off, embarrassed.
“Well, I wasn’t exactly thinking clearly then, was I?” I said defensively, thinking back to being naked and on top of her, eager to get inside her. I might have said anything to her then; my brain was not plugged in.
Babygirl stopped touching my waist, looking briefly hurt before regrouping and turning determined, like she didn’t want to show any vulnerability in front of me.
“Have you ever said that to anyone else?” she asked probingly.
No, I had never felt any desire to belong to someone or, on the other hand, to demand that a woman belong to me.
That kind of possessiveness and need for ownership were alien to me. So much so, I wasn’t sure I could identify those sensations if I was feeling them.
“No,” I admitted, taking another drink of coffee—I really needed it.
“So sex clearly doesn’t muddle your thinking that much, then. You’re calculating by nature, Neil. We both know that. You don’t just spout off,” Selene pointed out.
I didn’t break any of my many rules, except when it came to Selene where I broke them all.
Still, I was positive that I had been talking total bullshit the night before. I often got unbalanced and confused, but those moments would inevitably give way to reason and clear thinking. Like I was doing right then.
Without sparing her a glance, I went to drinking my coffee while her fingers began to move over my abs. Typically, I hated that kind of physical contact and had no problem making that clear to anyone, but in that moment, her delicate yet sensual touch pleased me.
She grinned impishly, her cheeks slightly coloring in minor embarrassment before moving closer until her breasts were pressing against my torso.
My breath caught like it was the first time I’d ever felt a woman’s body against my own, and every part of me was on alert as Selene stood up on her tiptoes to drop a kiss along the curve of my throat.
My eyelids grew heavy as I got drunk on those delightful touches. I let out a moan when I felt her hand slip between my legs. She rubbed the hardness in my pants with her open palm, tracing its length with a smug smile.
She could feel my body reacting to her provocation. I stared seriously at her to let her know that I was down to satisfy her—that I’d fuck her right there on that kitchen island behind her—but I was keeping myself in check.
“Where’d you get that bad habit?” Her lips grazed my beard stubble, and I was hit with the hot wave of her breath.
Where had my shy Tinkerbell gone?
“Which of my many bad habits are you talking about?” I asked irreverently, refusing to let down my guard.
“The one where you go on the defensive like I’m the enemy,” she answered softly, stretching to reach my mouth and kiss me.
Oh…what an adorable girl.
I moved away, so she missed my mouth, and Selene lowered herself back down with a look of surprise.
“Does your mother know you’re here?” I asked her.
“Did you two have an argument over me?” I asked her baldly, and Selene went stiff.
She nodded, and I scrubbed a hand over my face, trying to restrain my urge to yell at her.
Everything was going to shit. I’d already blown up her relationship with Matt, and now I was destroying the one she had with Judith.
“She’s accepted my decision. I want to be with you,” she admitted, like it was a normal thing to tell me. I couldn’t suppress my rage, and my right hand began to tremble as I pushed it anxiously through my hair.
“This is not a fucking love story. Do you understand? How long am I going to be yours? A month, two? Not forever,” I spat. “Besides, the only reason I’m keeping you here is because I have to protect you from a psychopath, not because you’re going to be my girlfriend or my partner or whatever else…”
“Oh, so I can date whoever I want, then? Take them to bed and just…” Selene made a very articulate gesture while grinning slyly at me. I could feel the blood draining from my face.
Shit, no way! For a moment, I went weak at the knees, but I recovered and advanced furiously on her before grabbing her and pulling her roughly to me. Babygirl shut her mouth and held her breath.
“You will continue to do all of that with me. I’m the only one who can have you,” I murmured in a possessive tone I’d never used with anyone else before.
I was blind with rage, my thinking obscured by the mental image of her with someone else. I was getting nauseous, and I was afraid I was going to vomit up the small amount of coffee I’d managed to drink.
What the hell was happening to me?
I didn’t release her from my grip, not even when she clenched her teeth and I could tell I was hurting her.
“If I don’t matter to you, then why are you jealous?” she whispered, staring deeply into my eyes. Something in my chest shook loose at the sound of that word.
I was…jealous?
I never had been before. I wasn’t even sure if I could recognize jealousy in myself. But maybe with her…
“I don’t…” I started to say, but the words were trapped on the tip of my tongue. Selene smiled victoriously and stretched up again to give me a kiss. In shock, I allowed it.
She didn’t retreat when she felt my body’s resistance—I had tensed up, unsure about returning her affections. She rubbed herself boldly against me, and I let out a groan, letting go of her waist to cup her ass and bring her more tightly against me.
“You’re trying to destroy me. You’re dangerous.
You’re a wicked witch. A formidable enemy.
You’re no Tinkerbell… You’re really just a little bitch,” I hissed, pulling back slightly, but she just rubbed the nape of my neck and kissed me again, even more passionately this time, like she was trying to get me to take her right there on the kitchen counter.
I opened my mouth, indulging her and merging our desires.
Who had told her she could kiss me like that?
No one. And yet, here she was, boldly laying claim to me as if she had every right to do so.
I couldn’t bring myself to push her away, though, and kept succumbing to the frustrating urge to taste her, to steal her breath, to invade her with my tongue and leave her stunned.
I reciprocated her gesture with violent desperation, and she began to struggle for breath. She tightened her hand on my shoulder, signaling that I should slow down a bit, but like the huge bastard I was, I refused to stop.
This was what she wanted—me—and I was going to do it my way.
“Good God!”
I pulled away from Selene when I heard a masculine voice bouncing off the pool house’s walls.
Reluctantly, I turned to see who our heckler was, only to find Matt Anderson standing motionless in the doorway.
He’d just barged in without knocking or calling out, and now he was staring slack-jawed at me and his daughter.
He had most assuredly gotten an eyeful already, and I still hadn’t bothered to take my hands off Selene’s ass cheeks.
“Anna was right. She said she saw a girl come in here, but she wasn’t sure if it was you.
I guess…” he said, his voice uncertain, and only then did I decide to move away from Babygirl, hoping that would help Matt process the situation.
He turned his dark eyes on me and looked at me with such hate that anyone else in my shoes probably would have been afraid.
“You really don’t have any shame, do you, Neil?
You keep on making the same mistakes,” he said in a wrathful hiss while a frightened Selene inched closer to me, grasping my arm nervously.
Her nails dug into my bare flesh. I glanced quickly at her and saw that she was scared.
I couldn’t stand seeing her like that. I pulled back from her touch, and she looked lost, so I rested a reassuring arm around her shoulders.
Tinkerbell rested her head on my chest, holding me tight.
“I keep on wanting your daughter. What of it? This shouldn’t come as a surprise,” I admitted, sounding indifferent, and Selene sucked in a breath. She obviously hadn’t expected that kind of statement from me and certainly not in front of Matt, who let out a bitter laugh.
“The way you want her is sick!” he shouted. “You’ve even turned her against me!” he added accusingly.